Titanium-containing alloys find a broad range of applications in areas where low weight and strength are required, such as aerospace and military uses, as well as corrosion resistance and heat applications, including use in turbine blade jet engine parts, high speed cutting tools, and so on. Molybdenum is known to be difficult to diffuse uniformly in titanium, because of its higher melting point and higher density, which causes molybdenum particles to drop to the bottom of a molten titanium pool where they sinter into agglomerates and form inclusions in the ingot produced. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,508,910. The same problems of getting molybdenum to homogenize with titanium are also experienced with columbium, which like molybdenum, is also highly refractory.
Matters are further complicated by the fact that titanium alloys require relatively tight chemistries, and often the chemistry of the desired master alloy is poorly compatible with the homogenous alloying of the various components, due to differences in component solubility, melting point, density, etc. Furthermore, the chemistry of the alloy is frequently dictated by the alloying process used.
Other methods of melting master alloys have drawbacks as well. For example, induction melting of the components in graphite crucibles causes the resulting alloy to pick up carbon, an impurity which in some applications cannot be tolerated. Such methods are used, for example, in the alloying of metals for preparing electrodes for hydrogen storage batteries. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,551,400.
An object of the invention is to produce an alloy having low residual aluminum.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an alloy useful in the manufacture of electrodes for hydrogen storage batteries, the electrodes having low carbon content.
These and other advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent as the following detailed description of the invention proceeds.